New Yorker: Reluctant Diva

The New Yorker has this "Loverly" piece on Jackson, Mississippi native and Jazz diva Cassandra Wilson.

In a world of niche audiences, the singer who refuses to go gently into a particular niche and stay there is at best a challenge and at worst a double agent. Cassandra Wilson, the willfully original jazz singer, has been puzzling her audiences for nearly half of her fifty-two years. Jazz radar first picked her up as a member of the nineteen-eighties collective M-Base, whose name, an acronym for MacroBasic Array of Structured Extemporizations, signalled its attempt to promulgate new ways of thinking about improvisation. With M-Base she worked as both leader and sideman in styles from avant-garde jazz to funk. Her originality, irresistibly evident in her confidential smokehouse contralto, spurred admirers to coax her into a more glamorous career—as a star. A beautiful, voluptuous woman, with a golden complexion and an inviting smile, she has now been a star for two decades, but a reluctant one, known for her expansion of the jazz repertory and her eagerness to lose herself in an ensemble. She seems intent on maintaining the attitude of a sideman. If it isn’t a team effort, where’s the fun? If you can’t take risks, what’s the point?

Wilson’s refusal to accept any single idea of how to steer her career was apparent last week with the release of a new album and two very different New York appearances. The album, “Loverly,” is an unalloyed triumph, and her record company, Blue Note, is promoting it as her first album of standards in twenty years. (The claim is off by a decade—everyone seems to want to forget her 1997 record, “Rendezvous”—but still.) Singing during an air-conditioning failure at the Blue Note (the club—no relation to the record label), she gave a glowing account of the material from the album. Despite the steam-bath ambience—standards, she noted, were written before air-conditioning—she sang with open-throated, pitch-perfect vivacity, nailing every song. But two days before, at BAM, as the climax of a monthlong festival devoted to the heritage of the Mississippi Delta—Wilson is a native of Jackson, Mississippi—her intonation wavered a bit as she indulged in endless vamping grooves, sacrificing melodic concision for rhythmic repetition. Wilson has always thrived on rhythmic complexity, but her best work, including “Loverly,” balances it with melodic, harmonic, and verbal nuances that transform evergreens into personal deliberations, frequently underscored with an ironic eroticism. If the BAM performance, alternately gripping and monotonous, left some in the audience bewildered, it succeeded in driving home her unconventional achievement, combining promiscuous collaboration (both engagements featured the prodigious twenty-one-year-old pianist Jonathan Batiste) and determination to rethink the jazz songbook.

Read the full article here: The New Yorker: Reluctant Diva ~ The unpredictable Cassandra Wilson.

Blues Trail: Big Walter Horton, Jimmy Reed

Mark your calendars for two upcoming Mississippi Blues Trail markers.

June 19 - A marker for Jimmy Reed at Collier Road in Dunleith, Mississippi 4pm (followed by a mural unveiling at 5pm on Broad Street in Leland and a reception at the Highway 61 Blues Museum).



June 20 - A marker for Big Walter Horton on Center Street in Horn Lake, Mississippi 10:30am.

Noxubee 3 on the Blues Trail

The Mississippi Blues Trail will recognize three Noxubee County natives at a marker ceremony on August 19: Carey Bell, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, and Willie King.

The Noxubee Alliance, along with local partners Main Street Macon and the Noxubee County Historical Society, will join with the Mississippi Blues Commission and the Mississippi Development Authority Tourism Division to host the marker unveiling and dedication ceremony at the new Macon Welcome Center on Jefferson Street in the Downtown Macon Historical District. Honorees Eddy Clearwater and Willie King are scheduled to attend and perform together. Lurrie Bell, son of deceased honoree Carey Bell, is scheduled to represent his father and also perform. Bruce Iglauer, founder and president of Alligator Records in Chicago - the largest independent Blues label in the world - is helping to coordinate the event and has been invited to speak at the ceremony.

"Cultural and heritage tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism economy and accounts for around 80% of domestic travelers. We lobbied hard for this recognition, and we will continue to aggressively market the existing strategic assets found right here in Noxubee County. I have already received a couple of inquiries from Blues journalists and tourists from other parts of the country who have heard the rumor that Eddy Clearwater, Willie King, and Lurrie Bell will all be together on the same stage for our event. The marker ceremony and performances by these legends will be a great day for Noxubee County and all of Mississippi," said Brian Wilson, executive director of the Noxubee Alliance.

Carey Bell, a Blues harmonica legend, was born in Macon on November 14, 1936 as Carey Bell Harrington.. His passing on May 6, 2007 was mourned by the blues world.

Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, one of the finest Blues guitarists and songwriters, was born in Macon on January 10, 1935 as Edward Harrington. He is a cousin to the late Carey Bell. Eddy Clearwater has received numerous awards such as the W.C. Handy Award and Chicago Music Award, and he has also been nominated for a Grammy.

Willie King, an award-winning guitarist and singer/songwriter, was born in Prairie Point, Mississippi on March 8, 1943. Willie King has received several awards from Living Blues Magazine and was inducted into the Howlin' Wolf Hall of Fame. King is the subject of "Down in the Woods", a documentary by Dutch filmmakers Saskia Rietmeijer and Bart Drolenga which was nominated for the 2008 Blues Music Award.

Lurrie Bell, son of deceased honoree Carey Bell, is a critically-acclaimed Blues guitarist and singer. He was selected as Most Outstanding Guitar Player in Living Blues Magazine's 2007 Critics' Poll and nominated for several Blues Music Awards presented by the Blues Foundation of Memphis.

Bo Diddley Blues

Clarion ledger Bo Diddley Photos

Billy Watkins writes about Bo Diddley today in the Clarion Ledger:

Seventeen months before he took his final breath, rock 'n' roll legend Bo Diddley was handed the Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. As far as anyone can remember, Diddley didn't let go of it until after he had arrived back home in Archery, Fla.

"Up until then, he was all about his guitar. 'Where's my guitar?' Seems like he would ask about it every five minutes," recalls Sally Killebrew of the Mississippi Arts Commission. "But after he got that award, he wouldn't turn it loose. He held it in his lap all the way to the airport. The guitar was thrown in with the rest of his luggage, and when the skycap asked about checking the award, he said, 'Uh-uh. I got this from the governor, and it's staying with me.'

"He would show it to anybody who came near him. 'I'm Bo Diddley, and I just received the Governor's Award.' It really struck me that a man who has received so many honors in his lifetime was so touched by this award."

Diddley, who was born in McComb and credited with helping blues transcend into rock 'n' roll during the 1950s, died Monday of heart failure at his Florida home. He was 79 and had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in May 2007 - three months after the governor's award ceremony.

Public and private ceremonies are scheduled for this weekend.

Diddley returned to Mississippi at least once after the Governor's Awards - last November, when he was honored with a marker in McComb as part of the Mississippi Blues Trail project.

"They told me he wouldn't be able to play, not to even ask him," says Jackson blues musician Jesse Robinson, who performed at the event. "But when I kicked off a blues song, he looked at me, and I looked at him. Musicians can feel things. Next thing I know, he is up on stage singing - and I mean singing down-home, cotton-pickin' blues. He took over."

Diddley, who moved around age 7 with his family to Chicago, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and one of his songs, Bo Diddley, is in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 37 among its Top 100 Guitarists of All Time.

Born Ellas Otha Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, he changed his name to Ellas McDaniel after being adopted by his mother's cousin. Numerous stories exist about how he might have settled on his stage name.

His first instrument was the violin, which he learned when he was 5. He took up guitar at age 10 but later used his hands to form fists instead of chords. Diddley was a Golden Gloves boxer during his teens and early 20s.

But it was his guitar licks that scored the most knockouts.

"He was one of four guys - along with Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino - to take blues or R&B into a new territory with a heavy beat," says Mississippi-based blues historian Scott Barretta. "Bo Diddley's entire vision was complex. His music was all over the place. But it was his own style, his own signature."

Says Robinson: "He came up with that bomp-de-bomp-de-bomp, bomp bomp beat that made everybody want to dance. That's what Bo Diddley brought to the table."

In a 2005 interview with The Clarion-Ledger, Diddley said: "I don't call myself a guitar player. I'm more of a showman. I make a guitar do things that others can't - beatin' and bangin' on it - and people seem to enjoy it."

He was a pioneer, becoming the first black person to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Diddley loved talking about that historic 1955 television performance.

"Sullivan had asked me to sing Sixteen Tons, the old Tennessee Ernie Ford hit," Diddley said in the interview with The Clarion-Ledger . "When I saw a list of the program, it read 'Bo Diddley. Sixteen Tons.' Well, I had a No. 1 song called Bo Diddley, so I thought he wanted me to play both. But he only wanted the one song played. The show was live, so it wasn't like we could stop.

"Afterward, he came unglued backstage. He said something to me I won't repeat, and I told him I'd punch him out. My manager was saying, 'But, Bo, this is Ed Sullivan.' I told him I didn't care who he was, that I was gonna bust (Sullivan's) lip if he said another word. That guy was a control freak."

Diddley wasn't invited back to the Sullivan stage, but it didn't hurt his popularity, especially with young British musicians such as The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Eric Burdon and The Animals.

"I was hearing all this music as a teenager coming from England ... guys like Eric Burdon singing 'Hey Bo Diddley!' - and I suddenly realized they were singing about a guy from Mississippi, this special, unique place where I was growing up. It gave me a sense of pride. It was life-changing," says Malcolm White, who helped book Diddley in Jackson on three occasions.

"Then to meet him and hang around with him was just unbelievable. Bo was a little bitter about some things ... royalties (from songs) he never received. But he was also a jokester. He had fun."

His stream of hits in the 1950s and '60s included Who Do You Love, Say Man, You Can't Judge A Book By the Cover and Pretty Thing.

In the 1980s, Nike introduced him to a new audience. Commercials featuring Diddley and professional baseball and football player Bo Jackson aired constantly. "Bo, you don't know diddley!" he would say to Jackson, who was attempting to play a guitar.

Even into his seventies, Diddley kept playing and writing music. "He never became an oldies act, and I really respect that," Barretta says. "He never became a parody of himself. He was very strong-willed and very independent."

Diddley is survived by four children, 15 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.

RIP Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley, a McComb Mississippi native and a founding father of rocknroll, died today.

From Modern Guitar Magazine:

On June 2, 2008, the music world lost the man behind the signature voice and choppy guitar riffs immediately identifiable as Bo Diddley. Born Otha Ellas Bates McDaniel in McComb, Mississippi, on December 30, 1928, at the age of seven his family moved to Chicago where he would be turned on to the guitar by John Lee Hooker and don the stage name Bo Diddley. The cause of death has been noted as heart failure.

During the Fifties and Sixties, Diddley was the epitomy of cool with his hip dark glasses, black hat, his homemade square guitar and rhumba-like guitar rhythms on songs like his 1955 record “Bo Diddley” with the now classic flip side, “I’m a Man." Both tracks were chordally constrained, but fueled by the deliberate and hypnotic chunka-chunka rhythms that became his signature sound and inspired countless musicians around the world, including Jimi Hendrix; Pete Townshend, Paul Butterfield, Jimmy Page, the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.

Listen to Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and the Bo Diddley-style riff drives it. All guitarists, whether they were figuring out chords in garage bands or launching their own claims to fame found his haunting guitar work gripping, so much so that Rolling Stone magazine would name him as one of the top 50 “Immortals” of rock ‘n’ roll.

As a young musician, he found himself center stage on Chess-Checkers Records with such blues masters as Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Spann, Elmore James and Muddy Waters.

Diddley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 with Howard Kramer, Assistant Curator, celebrating the artist’s accomplishments and influence by noting that Bo’s Chess recordings, “…stand among the best singular recordings of the 20th century.”

Governor Haley Barbour release a statement saying, "Bo Diddley was born a Mississippian and grew up in a world where natural talent earned him fame and respect. He was a rock-and-roll icon, a true pioneer whose style generated a lot of copies that were not nearly as good as the original. Marsha and I mourn his loss and extend our deepest sympathies to his family."

(Governor Haley Barbour, First Lady Marsha Barbour, and Bo Diddley)

On November 2, 2007 Bo Diddley was honored with a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker, in McComb Mississippi.

June Blues Trail Marker Events

The Heritage Trails Program of the Mississippi Development Authority's Tourism Division has announced two upcoming Blues Trail Marker events in June.

Dunleith, Mississippi: Jimmy Reed Marker on June 19 at 4pm

Horn Lake, Mississippi: Big Walter Horton Marker on June 20 at 10:30am

Mississippi Grammy Celebration

In an event to benefit the Mississippi Blues Trail project, Mississippi and the recording Academy came together to honor Mississippi's Grammy winners and nominees.

"Mississippi is the Birthplace of America's Music" was the theme of a special celebration of entertainers in Jackson Thursday night. The celebration of the state's Grammy legacy was hosted by Governor Haley Barbour and First Lady Marsha Barbour. The homegrown talent of Grammy winners and nominees like singer and actress Brandy, Mavis Staples of the famed Staples Singers, the Williams Brothers, Eddie Cotton, and dancer Kathy Thibodeaux were recognized.

"We're the first state that the recording academy has ever allowed to have a Grammy-sanctioned event to honor our Grammy nominees and Grammy winners," said Governor Barbour. "In Mississippi we have more Grammy nominees and winners per capita than any other state in the country."

Read the full story here: State's Grammy Legacy Celebrated at Gala

Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Ron Brown interviews Staples and Barbour and reports about the event. Listen to it here: Mississippi's Grammy Legacy

The Clarion Ledger also reports:

"The governor ... he's one cool fellow," said Staples, who resides in Chicago. "He's not stiff and stern like most governors." Barbour chuckled when told of Staples' comment. "That's about as cool as it gets, for Mavis Staples to say that about you," he said. "But being the governor of the state that has produced more Grammy winners and nominees per capita than any state in America ... that makes you cool - even if you're not."

Overstreet, a two-time Grammy Award winner for co-writing the country hits Forever and Ever Amen and Love Can Build A Bridge, said Mississippi's secret is "our culture, the way we were raised. We just got that Southern thing going."

Next year's gala, the third in what Barbour plans to become an annual event, will be held in Tunica "where we can seat 1,200 instead of 400," Barbour said. "Then, hopefully, we'll have the Convention Center done and be back in Jackson in 2010."

A trio of Swedish divas also performed. Hannah Holgersson paid tribute to Mississippi opera legend Leontyne Price, who grew up in Laurel, by singing Caro Come, which Price has performed countless times. Anorah performed Here Without You, a hit song by the Mississippi Gulf Coast rock group 3 Doors Down. And Beatrice sang What's In It For Me, honoring country superstar Faith Hill of Star.

Kathy Thibodeaux, founder and artistic director of Ballet Magnificat! in Jackson, performed a dance interpretation of Holgersson's song.

Dazed and Confused and Chasing Amy actress Joey Lauren Adams served as emcee.

Read the full story here: State's Grammy winners honored

Blues and Barbershop

Scott Barretta writes about the new home o fht Highway 61 Blues Museum in the Clarion Ledger:

The Highway 61 Blues Museum in Leland celebrates its move to a new home with live performances by local musicians T-Model Ford, Eddie Cusic, Eden Brent, Duff Durrough and Pat Thomas. Artist Cristen Barnard will be on hand to sign her poster for the ninth annual Highway 61 Blues Festival, which takes place on June 7 and will feature 92-year-old Honeyboy Edwards.

The museum, founded in 2002, celebrates the blues artists native to the mid-Delta region including Little Milton, Tyrone Davis, Jimmy Reed and dozens more. Its new location is the former Montgomery Hotel building at 307 North Broad St.

The new, larger space also allows for temporary exhibitions, and the first is a series of photographs of Delta artists by Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based Bill Steber. Since 1992, when he shot a session with Leland's James "Son" Thomas, Steber has returned more than 100 times to document the places and people of Mississippi blues.

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Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi hosts the Barbershop Harmony Society this weekend.

Dressed in matching red vests and bow ties, their voices carry on an American music tradition that emerged in the 19th century. The Jackson barbershop group Magnolia Chorus will perform, as well as two guest barbershop quartets - the Colorado group Redline and Tennessee's Lunch Break, whose members will compete during the Barbershop Harmony Society's International Convention in Nashville later in June.

Derrick said the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America was organized in the late 1930s, and by the 1960s, the organization claimed 48,000 Americans members. Derrick said Mississippi has chapters in Columbus and Biloxi, too. As one of the oldest American chapters, the Jackson group has around 35 members, and many will perform with the Magnolia Chorus at Belhaven.

"It's definitely a unique sound," he said. "It's traditional American music, and we'd like to get a lot of young folks involved."

Read the full story here: Barbershop group brings harmony to the stage

3 Doors Down - Another #1

Entertainment Weekly shares the good news about Mississippi's Gulf Coast rockers:

If you've gone to the movies much in the last year or two, you've heard a lot of 3 Doors Down, whose song "Citizen Soldier" was the soundtrack for an unavoidable pre-show Army recruitment ad. But how is the band's own fan enlistment effort going? The good news for the Mississippi-based rockers is that their newly released, self-titled fourth album is their second effort in a row to debut atop the Billboard/Soundscan chart. But, as is the case for most veteran acts, No. 1 ain't quite what it used to be, sales-wise. The new set sold 154,000 its first week, looking not quite as battle-ready as 3 Doors Down's previous disc, Seventeen Days, did when it debuted in 2005 with 231,000 units. Still, most bands these days would take up serious arms to achieve that kind of opening.

Honey Today, Hot Tamale

The Associated Press has this profile of interest: (Full story at the link) 'Honeyboy' Edwards outlasts them all

Edwards has a legacy that almost no living musician can match, and as the last Delta bluesman still standing he's found he's in demand. In the last year alone, he's released a new album, won Grammy and Handy Awards, appeared in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and done interviews for three documentaries due out in 2009 and 2010.

With all the activity, though, Edwards finds he's often tired these days. He was in Tunica on May 8 for the Blues Music Awards, in Jackson May 9 and in Crystal Springs May 10 to play a festival on a bill that included Pinetop Perkins, one of the few musicians who can claim to know Edwards when he was a young man.

Edwards, who turns 93 on June 28, was scheduled for a day of rest upon his return to Chicago, then it's off to Europe for 10 dates. He still plays about 70 gigs a year and the calls keep coming.

Edwards learned the guitar growing up in Shaw and first started playing professionally in Memphis as a teenager. By the 1950s he had played with almost every bluesman of note - Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton, Big Joe Williams, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters - across the decades.

He is believed to be among the last people to have seen Robert Johnson alive and was there the night the man legend says sold his soul to the devil died from poison. Of all the great blues musicians, Johnson's shadow has proven the longest, something Edwards admits he never would have imagined 70 years ago when his friend was killed, likely by a jealous husband who poisoned Johnson's whiskey. "Robert, he was really easy, I never heard him cussing with you," Edwards said. "He was a good musician. He liked whiskey and womens, that's all."

In news related to the Delta blues, the Chicago Reader has a piece on the history of the Delta tamale (full story at the link): On the Trail of the Delta Tamale - Southern food sleuths take on the murky origins of the mother-in-law sandwich

The SFA, which is based in Oxford, Mississippi, published its Tamale Trail documentary project (tamaletrail.com), a study of the Delta tamale that includes a map, a film, and a number of oral histories. One short segment on the “Chicago Connection” features an interview with a Mississippian who sold Delta tamales here in the 60s and 70s. He mentions a southern woman who sold mother-in-laws in the suburbs at the same time, which sparked the theory that the sandwich has southern origins.

Engler says that Mexicans, Greeks, Armenians, and Poles probably all had a role in the development of the mother-in-law. But he doesn’t discount the southern influence, pointing to a 1921 Tribune article about African-American tamaleros’ efforts to unionize. “Those probably were homemade Delta tamales,” he says.

The tamales at J’s are handmade in batches of three dozen by Yoland Cannon, a native of Leland, Mississippi, who runs a construction company and drives around town advertising them on the side of his truck. He grew up with hot tamales but only learned to make them about a year ago—from a “secret” source in the south. (Based on the way he tells the rest of the story, it sounds like that might be his mother.)

“Chicago ain’t nothing but a big old Mississippi,” says Cannon, whose intended market is southern emigres who buy tamales frozen back home and bring them up south—which is to say that, at least with respect to Delta tamales, the Great Migration continues.

According to Edge, who’ll be in town with Camp Chicago, it’s been flowing backward as well. “I’m seeing the exchange between Mississippi and Chicago working both ways,” he says. “I’m seeing ‘Windy City gyros’ and Chicago hot dogs in Mississippi. It’s people in their 20s and 30s—they’re moving back home.”

Unsung home of the blues

Richard Knight, author of "The Blues Highway: New Orleans to Chicago" wrote a piece for the UK's "The Independent" which focuses largely on Jackson's role in the development of Mississippi blues.

In 1963, Medgar Evers, the Field Secretary in Mississippi for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was shot in the back as he walked from his car to his Jackson home. He died less than an hour later. It was one of the more cowardly acts of the Civil Rights struggle. But there was more shame to come: Evers's killer, the white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, was twice acquitted by all-white juries. It took a further 31 years to convict him.

Medgar Evers's elderly brother Charles still lives and works in Jackson. He's the manager at WMPR 90.1 FM, a blues and gospel radio station. When I met him in his office, a desk-fan clattering like an old Dakota on take-off, he explained how he and the great bluesman BB King, from nearby Itta Bena, have staged an annual concert to remember Medgar every year since 1963.

The fact that Charles Evers, also a prominent NAACP activist, made a career in music – and chooses to commemorate his brother through music – underlines the link between the Civil Rights movement and the blues. The two go together, not least because the blues was, for years, one of the fastest routes a black kid could take out of poverty. That period and its soundtrack is, to me, as interesting as any in history. And in Jackson, the capital of the state which gave the blues to the world, the many reminders of that extraordinary time are intoxicating. You do not need to be a blues buff to get it, either: this is the Deep South, where sluggish speech, Spanish moss and slow-cooked BBQ will seduce you.

Farish Street, north of the city, is where the blues grew up in Jackson. For years the heart of the black community, Farish Street was as important to the development of the blues as was the far more celebrated, and gentrified, Beale Street in Memphis.

Through the glare of the Southern sun one can make out the words "Ross Furniture Co" on 225 Farish Street. This was the original site of HC Speir's music shop. You probably haven't heard of HC Speir, though you're likely to have heard of Sam Phillips. Phillips discovered, among others, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.

It's time Speir was thought of in the same breath: he discovered Sam Phillips. These were the very founders of Delta blues, a genre which would underpin the subsequent development of popular music and without whom Phillips's Sun Records would have been very different. Speir, a white businessman, began selling guitars and wind-up Victrola phonographs (early record-players) on the black side of town in the 1920s. But he became what he described as a "talent broker", passing on to record companies the best of the artists he came across in and around Jackson. So-called "race labels" such as Vocalian and Gennett learnt to trust Speir's fine ear.

The blues historian Gayle Dean Wardlow befriended Speir, who died in 1972, and says the man did not understand the full significance of his work. But without Speir, Robert Johnson might not have been heard beyond the dusty Delta street corners where he played before finding his way to Jackson back in 1935.

Farish Street is in steep decline, though its heat-faded storefronts and defunct business premises, such as Ace Records and the Crystal Palace nightclub, are so redolent of another time that it's as exciting as many more organised presentations of American history. Farish Street today would be immediately recognisable to the likes of Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson II – both of whom recorded for Trumpet Records on Farish Street early in their careers.

And it's not all history: the local blues singer Dorothy Moore, famous for her world-wide hit "Misty Blue" in the Seventies, started her own label, Farish Street Records, in 2002; and Malaco Records, a much bigger concern, is still going strong after 40 years.

Another survivor is Peaches, an African-American diner located next to the Alamo theatre. The Alamo once hosted celebrated talent contests, plucking the likes of Otis Spann, who would become Muddy Waters' pianist, from obscurity.

Peaches has been a Farish Street favourite since the early Sixties and little has changed either to the decor or the menu. There's a giant jukebox stacked with blues, soul and gospel records. Photos of local heroes line the walls. The menu is pure Southern soul-food: fried beans, smothered chicken, okra and huge slices of cobbler. It's good, down-home, artery-clogging stuff and if there was a branch of Peaches in Britain I would be a fat man now. Possibly dead.

While Peaches and Malaco Records have kept the spirit of the blues alive in Jackson, the more important cradles of the music – juke joints – have not fared so well.

When I first visited Jackson in 2000, I spent a memorable night at the Subway Lounge, one of the coolest and most authentic juke joints left in Mississippi. It was a one-room basement club in a residential district which was hard to find and even harder to leave. The ceiling was decorated with fairy lights, the house band were mind-blowing and alcohol was bought from a hatch in the side of the house next door. The Subway Lounge was the real thing.

So I was sad to discover in 2004 that it had closed for good, after four decades in business. The building had become unsafe and no one could find the money to put it right. But there are other juke joints still open. The Queen of Hearts is another improvised music club, hosting live bands from time to time, and every bit as rough and raucous as the Subway had been.

There is still time to visit the cradle of that great creative outpouring and to see something of the culture which fostered it. But you don't have long. It's evaporating in the Mississippi heat.

Read the full story here: Mississippi: Unsung home of the blues

Soulja Boy on Mississippi ties

17-year-old rapper Soulja Boy (real name: DeAndre Way) has been nominated for a Grammy, hit with a number 1 single, and got his start on youtube. He recently spoke to the Clarion Ledger about his Mississippi ties:

Q: I understand you went to high school in Batesville. What can you tell me about your Mississippi ties?

A: Well, man, I was in middle school in Atlanta, Ga., right? I had got in a little trouble or whatever down there, so my mama, she let me move in with my daddy in Mississippi. When I got to Mississippi, I went to Batesville, and I went to South Panola High School my ninth-grade and 10th-grade years. After my 10th-grade year that summer I had got signed to Interscope Records and started traveling the world.

Q: So are you a South Panola football fan, then?

A: I played football for South Panola when I went to school there.

Q: You did? What position did you play?

A: I played wide receiver.

Q: Did you have some wheels?

A: Well, you know, that's why I'm rapping now, man (laughs).

Q: You're coming to perform at this big concert in Jackson and you're in Tupelo now - so how does Mississippi fit into your success?

A: Basically, this is where I got picked up at. I was living in Atlanta, Ga., but I couldn't get no record deal for nothing, you feel me? Then I moved to Mississippi, and there was nothing popping, there wasn't no clubs or nothing really popping, and that's where I got my record deal at. If I hadn't ever came to Mississippi, I probably wouldn't have ever got my deal.

Q: So Mississippi will always have a little spot in your heart?

A: Exactly. It's where my family's at.

You can read the whole interview here: Soulja Boy: 'Crank Dat' just a start

Blues Trail: Alamo and Dorothy Moore

The next marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail will be unveiled at 3pm on Thursday, May 22 at 333 North Farish Street in Jackson and will honor the Alamo Theater and Jackson's First Lady of Blues, Dorothy Moore.

(In related news, Dorothy Moore performed at a Habitat for Humanity benefit concert in Jackson on Friday.)

News Roundup

Legendary Mississippi Sheiks to get their due

On a recent holiday, Steve Dawson—guitar maestro and founder of local label Black Hen Music—had the bright idea of putting together a tribute album to one of his favourite bands, the Mississippi Sheiks. Other than the blues classic “Sitting on Top of the World”, the Sheiks’ songs are largely unknown to today’s music fans, despite having been revered by Americana-influenced musicians since the ’30s. In those days, the trio was one of the hottest—and sauciest—acts around, and it influenced such legends as Memphis Minnie, Robert Johnson, and Big Bill Broonzy. “Much of their stuff remains obscure,” Dawson told the Straight. “They disbanded in 1935, but were one of the first bands to generate crossover interest from both black and white communities. What’s going to make this different from the regular tribute album is that, for the most part, there’s going to be a house band and the musicians are coming here to record over a three-day period.” The artists appearing on the album—which is scheduled to be out in March 2009—include Madeleine Peyroux, Bill Frisell, Bruce Cockburn, John Hammond, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Bob Brozman, Kelly Joe Phelps, Geoff Muldaur, Van Dyke Parks, and Dawson’s recording buddies Jim Byrnes and the Sojourners. “Ry Cooder has also agreed to do it, much to the chagrin of his lawyer. We don’t know how it’s going to shake down, but he would be recording in L.A.,” Dawson said.

Eden Brent: The sultry voice of the Mississippi Delta Blues

With a sultry voice like thick molasses, splashed with a shot of Jack Daniels, Eden Brent approaches the piano with the eagerness of a long-lost lover, determined to make up for lost time. An engaging aptitude with the keyboard, earthy and one-of-a-kind vocals, and a palpable, gutsy energy are just a few things that have helped Brent find success in the music world. Most folks around these parts already had a head's up on Brent's talent, and now, with the release of her latest CD, “Mississippi Number One,” the rest of the world is going to be let in on the secret. A Greenville girl born and reared, Brent says she can't remember a time when she didn't want to be a singer. But it was not until her introduction to Greenville bluesman Boogaloo Ames that Brent says she began to discover who she was as an artist. When she was 19, Brent says she finally plucked up enough courage to ask Ames, who by that time was a legend in the Port City, for lessons. And it was that one request that changed the rest of her life, says Brent, who spent the next 16 years learning from and working with Ames. Since launching her solo career, she was named a 2004 inductee into the Greenville Blues Walk, the 2006 winner of the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge, and has headlined venues across the world, including the Kennedy Center, the British Embassy, and tours in South Africa and Norway.

Elvis tribute artiste has Delhi rocking

Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, set India's capital on fire. The hip-shaking, gyrating rock sensation of the 60s and the 70s was in full regalia - his trademark long sideburns, high-collared sequinned jacket - as he belted out favourites like 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'All Shook Up' in his deep resonant baritone. Only it was not the King in person. Award-winning Canada-based Elvis tribute artiste Stephen Kabakos took the audience back in time to the swinging 60s and the 70s in the country's first ever Elvis Presley tribute concert at the Hotel Radisson on Wednesday night. The performer, who was crowned the Grand Champion at the 2001 "Images of the King World Competition" in Memphis, Tennessee, is one of the top three Elvis tribute artistes in the world.

95 years of blues: 'Pinetop' Perkins comes to Marin

With a Nicasio show coming up and a new album, famed piano man Willie 'Pinetop' Perkins isn t letting age slow him down. I thought for sure that the last time I saw blues great Willie "Pinetop" Perkins would be the last time I'd ever see Willie "Pinetop" Perkins. Let me explain: Revered as the piano player in the legendary Muddy Waters Band, Perkins is a blues hall of famer whose barrelhouse style has influenced generations of rock and blues musicians. I had the pleasure of meeting him five years ago when he played West Marin's Rancho Nicasio with his pal Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. That night, he recorded tracks for a live album, the Grammy-nominated "Ladies Man," with Marin's Elvin Bishop and Angela Strehli sitting in. At the time, he was one of the last of the old-time Mississippi bluesmen still performing. I figured the old cat had used up his nine lives with that little confrontation with a train and, given his advancing years, thought it would be a pretty safe bet I'd never have the chance to see him play again. Which is why I don't gamble. Since then, Perkins has won two Grammys - for lifetime achievement in 2005 and another last year for traditional blues album for a concert recording with Henry James Townsend, Robert Lockwood Jr. and David "Honeyboy" Edwards called "Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas." Townsend and Lockwood died in 2006, leaving Perkins and Edwards as two of the few surviving bluesmen with a direct, first-hand connection to seminal figures like Waters and harmonica ace Sonny Boy Williamson. In his time, Perkins played with both of them. This week and last, Perkins was in his native Mississippi for ceremonies dedicating a couple of Mississippi State Blues Trail Markers in his honor. He's also up for Blues Foundation award for his DVD, "Born in the Honey - The Pinetop Perkins Story." He'll be celebrating his 95th birthday on July 7 with a new "Pinetop Perkins and Friends" CD, set to be out in June, with guests Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Jimmy Vaughan.

In related news: Blues marker honors Hopson Plantation, Pinetop Perkins

The History of BB King - The Legendary Blues Guitarist

In his youth he played on street corners for dimes and pennies! He was born on 16 September, 1925 on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Indianola. He spent his youth playing on street corners for dimes. Today B.B. King (Riley B. King) averages 250 'packed to the rafters' concerts around the world each and every year. In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee to pursue his music career and it is first love. His first major break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio broadcast. As the years well by, King has developed one of the world's most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, incorporating his distinct and complex voice-like string blends and his left-handed vibrato, both of which have become vital components of a blues guitarist's vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. In the mid-1950s, two men got into a fight during one of King's performances. The men knocked over a kerosene stove and set fire to the venue. King raced outdoors to safety and then realised he'd left his beloved acoustic guitar behind. He rushed back in to retrieve it and almost lost his life. He found out later that the fight had been over a woman. He named his guitar Lucille to remind him to never do a crazy thing like fight for a woman. Ever since, each one of King's guitars has been called Lucille.

Hubert Sumlin

Hubert Sumlin will enter the Blues Hall of Fame this week and gain a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.

The Greenwood Commonwealth writes (read the full story - Sumlin: Greenwood's still my town)

Hubert Sumlin’s first wife told him to shape up or be single again. “She said it was either my guitar or her,” Sumlin said of an early tiff married life tossed his way. “So I picked up my guitar and walked out the door.” That decision, in effect, will be honored Tuesday when a marker is placed on the Mississippi Blues Trail in the blues giant’s hometown of Greenwood.

Sumlin, who as a 12-year-old in the 1940s was performing with harmonica great James Cotton, got his break when Howlin’ Wolf caught wind of the duo’s sound and invited them to do a 15-minute set on West Memphis’ KWM radio station. “Wolf told us, ‘If you do it right, I might have to get you in my band,’” Sumlin recalled. Something must have been done right.
From the 1950s until Wolf’s death in 1976, Sumlin’s lead guitar playing – described as “darting, unpredictable” by American Roots Music – complemented Wolf’s performances. Then, when Rolling Stone magazine made a list in 2003 of the top 100 guitarist of all time, Sumlin ranked number 65. And a sentence guitarist Jimi Hendrix is said to have uttered has entered into music-enthusiast legend: “My favorite guitar player is Hubert Sumlin.”

At 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sumlin be honored with a marker on the Mississippi's Blues Trail. The dedication will take place on Greenwood’s River Road Extended.

Billy Watkins writes about Sumlin's connection with famed rocker Eric Clapton in the Clarion Ledger (read the full article here - Finger-lickin' good: Blues Hall of Fame welcomes Hubert Sumlin):

Hubert Sumlin had never seen so many guitars. American brands. Japanese. German. The walls were covered with them. It was near midnight in April 1970 at Clapton's home. They had just finished what would come to be known as The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, a studio jam that included the Rolling Stones, Ringo Starr, Steve Winwood and Klaus Voorman.

"I can't take no guitar from you, Eric," Sumlin said. "I want you to," Clapton insisted.

Sumlin then spotted a guitar case on the floor and opened it. He pulled out a black mid-1950s Fender Stratocaster. He ran his fingers up and down the neck a few times, cradled it against his belly. "This one ... I'll take this one, Eric," Sumlin said.

The words made Clapton's whole body tremble. "No, Hubert, not that one. Please, man. Not that one."

Clapton had just recently purchased it in a small music store in Nashville for $100. It was the guitar of his dreams, the way it played and spoke.

"This is the one, man," Sumlin said. Several minutes passed. Sumlin kept playing. Clapton kept shaking.

"OK, Hubert," Clapton finally said. "But if I want this guitar back one day, can I buy it from you?"

Sumlin shook his head. "Naw, man, I'm gonna play it a while, and then I'll give it back to you. You ain't gotta buy it."

After he returned to the U.S., "I think everybody in Eric's family -including his butler - called me about that guitar," the 76-year-old Sumlin recalls now. "But I told them the same thing I told Eric. 'I'll give it back one day.' "

Hubert Sumlin, one of the Top 100 guitarists of all time according to Rolling Stone magazine and scheduled to be inducted Wednesday in The Blues Hall of Fame at ceremonies in Tunica, grew up on a plantation just outside Greenwood.

Just like he promised Clapton, he gave the guitar back. "I kept it a couple of weeks," Sumlin says. "I knew we were gonna be playing Montreal at the same time, so I went over to his hotel. Police led me to his room, and Eric met me at the door. He grabbed me. Hugged me. He said, 'Anything I can ever do for you, you just let me know.' "
Clapton went on to play and write most of his greatest hits on that guitar, which became affectionately known as "Blackie." It was donated by Clapton in 2004 to the Guitar Center in Corona, Calif., for auction, with proceeds going to Clapton's Crossroads drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Antigua. Winning bid: $959,000.

Hubert Sumlin -- Sittin on Top of the World

BB King International Blues Workshop

Greenwood Commonwealth: King will hold blues workshop June 6

The King of the Blues will return to Mississippi Valley State University June 6 for the eighth annual B.B. King International Blues Workshop. Itta Bena native B.B. King will hold his workshop at the H.G. Carpenter Auditorium on the Itta Bena campus. Events get under way with the Musicians Workshop – Part I from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

King, 82, will take to the stage from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. He’ll talk about his guitar style, described as “one of the world’s most identifiable guitar styles . . . integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist’s vocabulary.”

Part II of the workshop will begin at 1 p.m. with a musical performance featuring King's daughter, Shirley. Other performers scheduled to attend are MVSU alumni Pat Brown, vocalist; Vickie Baker, vocalist; Rickey Burkhead, drum gear/performer; as well as guests Eden Brent, vocalist and pianist; Nellie McInnis, bass guitarist; Idalee Feaster, drummer; Jessie Robinson, guitar gear/performer; and MVSU student Levan Lortki-panize featured on the harmonica and guitar.

For more details on the workshop, contact the Delta Research & Cultural Institute at 662-254-3001.

Robert Johnson Blues Foundation Hall of Fame

Raymond Reeves writes about the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation Hall of Fame dinner and shares the teacher behind the Robert Johnson devil myth (read the full story: Playin' the blues)

Ask a music expert about the birthplace of the blues, and the answer will be quick and simple: the Mississippi Delta. But central Mississippi can stake a claim as well, as the birthplace of one of this genre's most influential figures.

Robert Johnson [of Hazlehurst], who, legend says, sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads of highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, will be honored this weekend with the annual Blues Jam. The event, in its fourth year, is organized by the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation and features an awards banquet at Jackson's TelCom Center on Friday and a festival in Crystal Springs on Saturday.

The banquet, scheduled for downtown Jackson on Friday night, includes the induction of the latest class into the foundation's hall of fame: David "Honeyboy" Edwards, the last living blues artist known to have played with Johnson, and the late Ike Zinnerman, who will be represented by members of his family. Zinnerman apparently played such a role in Johnson's life that his influence is reflected in the famous legend regarding Johnson's talent.

"Ike Zinnerman is the great bluesman who shared his knowledge of the guitar with Robert Johnson," Clapton wrote. "The (Johnson) family says that, when Robert Johnson came down to study with Ike Zinnerman, he was not that great of a guitarist, quite frankly. When he studied with him, he worked with him so intensely that when he went back to the Delta people were saying 'Man, what happened to you? You must have sold your soul to the devil.'"

Blues Awards

The Blues Music Awards are tomorrow night and as the Clarion Ledger reports, they've come home to the Delta (read the full story: The blues come home):

For the first time in its 29-year history, the Blues Music Awards will be held in the Mississippi Delta. Long known as the birthplace of the blues, the poverty-stricken Delta has taken a back seat to Memphis, headquarters of the Blues Foundation, which puts on the biggest event in the industry. But not this time. Dozens of blues acts - Jimmie Vaughan, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Omar Dykes among them - are set to attend the event, scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Grand Casino Event Center in Tunica. The festivities will kick off at 3 p.m., with Gov. Haley Barbour unveiling a Blues Trail Marker on U.S. 61 in Tunica.

Jay Sieleman, executive director of the foundation, said the group chose Tunica for a couple of reasons. First, the venue in Memphis usually used was already booked. Second, the Delta made sense. "Rather than switch dates," he said, "we thought, how can we take advantage of the situation. From our point of view, historically this is great. The Delta is the birthplace of the blues."

The Ledger has a list of the nominees but for more information visit: www.blues.org

U.S. 61 to get Blues Trail marker

The Associated Press reports:

Gov. Haley Barbour on Thursday will unveil a marker designating U.S. 61 as part of the Mississippi Blues Trail. The ceremony will be held at the Tunica Visitors Center on U.S. 61 in Tunica.

"As the most famed stretch of roadway in Mississippi's storied history, it's only fitting that the highway be permanently and officially designated as the Blues Highway to honor the many talented artists whose travels made it come alive as one of most enduring cultural icons," Barbour said in a statement.

Among the dozens of blues artists who recorded songs about U.S. 61 were Mississippians Sunnyland Slim, James Son Thomas, David Honeyboy Edwards, Big Joe Williams, Joe McCoy, Charlie Musslewhite, Johnny Young, Eddie Burns, Blind Mississippi Morris, and Mississippi Fred McDowell.

The Cotton Pickin' Blues

Here comes another Mississippi Blues Trail Marker Ceremony: Friday, May 9, 2008 at 1pm at the Hopson Plantation in Clarksdale to note The Cotton Pickin' Blues.

Blues Marker for Hubert Sumlin

Greenwood will be the site of a new Mississippi Blues Trail marker honoring Hubert Sumlin. The marker will be unveiled Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 2pm.

Juke Joints on ABC News

Ron Brown at Mississippi Public Broadcasting shared this piece from ABC News on juke joints and blues in Merigold, Mississippi. Thanks Ron!

Speaking of Ron, here are a couple of great pieces he did for MPB.

Mississippi Born Blues - Sonny Boy Williamson II is one of Mississippi's enduring blues legends. And as MPB's Ron Brown reports, more than a few people are determined to keep his legacy alive.

Natchez Bluff Blues Festival - The 13th annual Natchez Bluff Blues Festival gets underway this weekend. And has MPB’s Ron Brown reports, it begins with a nod to an historic tragedy that blues artists have been singing about for the past 68-years.

Blues Trail: Pinetop Perkins

The Mississippi Blues Trail hosts its next marker ceremony at noon on Saturday, May 3, 2008 in Belzoni to honor Pinetop Perkins.

Pickering Promotes Blues in DC

Roll Call reports on a project by Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering to promote the blues in our nation's capital. Pickering has been a cosponsor of this program for the past few years.

Festival Builds Appreciation for the Blues
April 10, 2008
By Torey Van Oot,
Roll Call Staff

George Higgs has been singing about growing up in a “slow town with a fast name” since he first picked up a guitar and harmonica at age 11.

“I’m telling my life experience through the old blues — the things that I went through and I sang about them. Had some good times and had some hard times, but it’s enjoyable, and I’m telling my story through the song,” said the 78-year-old musician, who was born and raised in Speed, N.C.

But playing the blues doesn’t always pay the bills. That’s where the Music Maker Relief Foundation comes in.

The foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides grant money to traditional blues musicians in need of financial assistance, is being honored by blues legends, lawmakers and music afficionados at the Fifth Annual Congressional Blues Festival on April 23.

The festival, which features headliners Robert Cray and Elvin Bishop as well as traditional blues artists sponsored by Music Maker, is meant to “shine the light on American music’s true beginnings, blues and roots,” founder Ryan Costello said.

Costello first organized the event in 2004 after the political consulting firm he worked for became involved with the North Carolina-based foundation.

“I may be a little bit ashamed to say I’m not as much a blues connoisseur as people might think I would be,” he said. “Really I’m just a music lover and recognize [blues is] where all forms of music come from ... I wanted to honor that.”

What started out as a concert on the balcony of Costello’s Capitol Hill office building has grown to a daylong event featuring nonstop performances on three stages at the Kennedy Center.

Support for the festival has grown as well; it is now sponsored by a 66-member bipartisan Congressional Host Committee.

Host Committee Co-Chairman Chip Pickering (R), whose home state of Mississippi is considered one of the birthplaces of the blues, said he hopes the festival provides awareness of the influence the genre has had on American music.

“The blues provides a musical and lyrical testimony to enduring and overcoming struggles,” he said. “Rich or poor, Southern or Northern, regardless of race or religion, we can enjoy the blues and let it speak to our hearts and move our feet to dance.”

The festival has raised more than $600,000 since its inception to help struggling blues musicians pay for basic necessities such as food, lodging and health care. The foundation also helps artists book performances and record their music.

“When you take an artist who is playing for free on the street, and suddenly they are selling out venues in Europe and fans are buying their CDs, you have given them the chance to make their own way,” Pickering said. “This isn’t only a blessing to the artist, because the world and music consumers are also wealthier for the exposure.”

In the end, blues lovers say they hope the festival and Music Maker’s efforts help keep the tradition alive for generations to come.

“It ain’t like it used to. It’s dying slowly, but we try to keep it alive,” Higgs said. “I’ll play as long as I can — I like this old blues. I hate to see it die.”

The Fifth Annual Congressional Blues Festival will be April 23 at the Kennedy Center. For more information or to enter a lottery for free tickets to the performances, visit congressionalbluesfestival.org. The last drawing will be Monday.

Rhythm Club in Natchez

On Friday, April 18, 2008 at 5:30 PM, the Mississippi Blues Commission will unveil a Mississippi Blues Trail marker in downtown Natchez in remembrance of the Rhythm Club. The ceremony will take place at the NAPAC Museum located at 301 Main Street and will kick off the 13th Annual Natchez Blues Bluff Festival.

Eddy ‘The Chief’ Clearwater

Macon native Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater takes the stage in Clearwater, New Jersey on Saturday, April 12.

During the 1950s, Chicago’s West Side was a breeding ground for some of the world’s greatest bluesmen: Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Freddie King and others. With his fierce guitar playing, soulful and emotive vocals and wild stage shows, Clearwater is now part of that list.

Indeed, between his slashing left-handed guitar work, his room-filling vocals, his self-defined “rock-a-blues” style (a forceful mix of blues, rock, rockabilly, country and gospel), his boundless energy and even his signature Indian headdress, Clearwater is among the practitioners of the West Side blues working today.

The blues world recognized his talent by giving him the Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues - Male Artist of the Year in 2001.

Born Edward Harrington in Macon, Mississippi, Clearwater and his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama in 1948. With music from blues to gospel to country and western surrounding him from an early age, Clearwater taught himself to play guitar (left-handed and upside down), and began performing with various gospel groups, including the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. He moved to Chicago in 1950 and his first music jobs were with gospel groups playing in local churches. By 1953, as Guitar Eddy, he was making a strong name for himself, working the South and West Side bars regularly. He recorded his first single, “Hill Billy Blues,” in 1958.

(Read the Full Story Here)

ABC this Sunday

Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 7:00 AM, Good Morning America (ABC) will highlight Mississippi Blues and Juke Joints.

Milt Hinton Legacy Performance

As part of Jazz Appreciation Month, Riverwalk Jazz presents a legacy broadcastof bassist Milt Hinton in a 1991 performance with The Jim Cullum Jazz Band live on stage at The Landing. Milt was 81. Two excerpts and the full one hour show are available at this PublicBroadcasting.net page.

In addition to the music, the page tells about the life of Milt Hinton:

Jazz bass legend Milt Hinton used to say, "A person has to have lived to play great jazz...Unless you've lived, what could you say on your instrument?" Well, Milt Hinton had plenty to say in his thousands of recordings, with his lively storytelling and in some 60,000 'black and white' photographs of his fellow musicians shot behind the scenes.

Milt Hinton is widely regarded as The Dean of jazz bassists. He was the master of the "slap" bass technique that originated in New Orleans with Bill Johnson (born in 1872,) a man Milt knew during his early Chicago days. Jazz historian Richard Hadlock described Milt's slapping as "...a living link with the New Orleans bass style."

Hinton's career spanned more than 6 decades. Born in 1910 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Milt began playing in Chicago and got his first break in 1931 playing and recording for Victor with Eddie South, billed as the "dark angel of the violin." In 1936, Milt joined Cab Calloway and stayed with him until 1951. Famous as the most sought-after recording "session man" of the New York studio scene in the 1950s and '60s, Milt still holds the record as the most-recorded musician in jazz history, having logged more than 6,000 sessions. He performed with Basie, Ellington and Armstrong, and appeared on network television and radio shows, on motion picture sound-tracks, as well as recordings with Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Sam Cooke, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bette Midler, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, and many more. Milt Hinton died December 19, 2000 in New York City.

(Read the Full Story Here)

Blues Marker for Greenwood Elks Lodge

The Elks Lodge in Greenwood will be recognized with a Mississippi Blues Marker on March 28: "The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World (IBPOEW) was formed in 1898 in Cincinnati by blacks who were excluded from the “white” Elks organization, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE). By 1899, 12 lodges of the IBPOEW, which became commonly known as the “black Elks,” were established in eight states, including Mississippi. In 1902, a female auxiliary group, the Daughters of the IBPOEW was founded. The chapter in Greenwood was established in 1925, and property at this location was purchased for the establishment of a lodge in 1927. From the 1940s through the 1970s, the hall in Greenwood hosted artists including BB King, T-Bone Walker, Ike & Tina Turner, James Brown, Percy Mayfield, “Little” Junior Parker, Roy Brown and others." (Read The Full Story Here)

BB King Buys Club Ebony

B.B. King has purchased the juke joint Club Ebony in his hometown of Indianola from Mary Shepard who has owned it the past three decades. Shepard is ready to retire and her last day at the club is April 6. A Mississippi Delta Blues Trail Marker outside Club Ebony says several musical icons have played there since 1945 besides King including Count Basie, Ray Charles, James Brown, and Ike Turner.

Lula

Jackson Clarion Ledger: "LULA — Blues legends like Charley Patton and Sam Carr trace their roots to the tiny town of Lula in the Mississippi Delta. Patton, who immortalized Lula in some of his lyrics, his wife Bertha Lee, and Carr are just three of the artists to be honored today when Lula gets a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker. Another marker will be unveiled in Tunica the same day in honor of another Blues giant, James Cotton. Besides Carr and Patton, the Lula area in Coahoma County claims legendary performers like Son House and Frank Frost. Singer-songwriter John Mohead is also from Lula. The marker will be located near city hall at the corner of Front and Second Street. Also today, Tunica will get a Blues Trail Marker honoring Cotton, who is scheduled to perform at the event. The marker for Cotton will be placed at the intersection of U.S. Highway 61 and Bonnie Blue Road, just west of his birthplace." (Read the Full Story Here)

RIP - David Lee Durham

Delta Democrat Times: "The Delta blues community has lost another of its favorite sons. David Lee Durham, 64, will be laid to rest Saturday during a service at Gentry High School in Indianola. The self-taught guitarist died on Jan. 24 at South Sunflower County Hospital. Durham, who played a trademark white guitar with patriotic stars and stripes, was longtime leader of the Ladies Choice Band. In 2004, the group won the Delta's Regional Blues Challenge. That same year, the Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola named Durham 'Blues Musician of the Year.' While we Deltans love the blues, and we love to share the history behind it, we're reminded of the harsh reality of the life of a local blues musician when someone like Durham passes - without sufficient means to cover funeral and burial costs. One postive of this is that fellow blues musicians, including Mickey Rogers of Greenville, joined forces Wednesday night for a benefit at Indianola's Club Ebony, with proceeds to cover those costs."

RIP - Jessie White

Detroit Free Press: "Jessie White, a popular figure who brought his Mississippi-bred stylings to the Motor City half a century ago, died Tuesday from complications after a heart attack....He was 87. Musicians from the city's blues and rock scene were scheduled to gather at a Detroit bar Thursday night for an informal music memorial to White, and friends are hoping to have a proper tribute concert by the spring. In recent years, the pianist-vocalist known as Uncle Jessie had been a fixture at the Attic Bar in Hamtramck. There he played regular gigs with a group of younger musicians, performing sets of blues standards and his own gritty material. Born in Mississippi, White moved to Detroit in 1950, finding work in the junk business. His house on 29th Street became a popular gathering spot for hometown and touring blues musicians, home to whiskey-fueled jam sessions that became the stuff of local lore." (Read More Here)

Pinetop Perkins

Pinetop Perkins: 94 years old and still pounding the piano (Citizen Times, North Carolina): "Pinetop Perkins has been playing the blues so long that when he started, radio was still a newfangled novelty. Maybe the senior star on the blues circuit, Perkins’ career dates to 1927, and yet the musician, who turns 95 in July, continues to tour....Born Joe Willie Perkins in Belzoni, Miss., Perkins started off playing both guitar and piano...Perkins told The New York Times that he played at chicken fights, where his pay was the dead chicken. His nickname came from the classic blues tune “Pinetop’s Boogie” by Pinetop Smith. He is best-known for a long hitch playing piano with the Muddy Waters Blues Band, 1969-80. Margolin also worked in that group. Perkins and others from the Waters band left to begin their own act." (Read The Full Story)

Milt Hinton

Playing The Changes -- New book about Milt Hinton: "The life story of Milt Hinton is rooted in hard times, rising from segregated backwater clubs to elegant concert halls, offering a perspective on the African American experience that is unique in its mix of humor and wisdom. The publication of Playing The Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs (Vanderbilt University Press, January 2008) not only tells Milt's compelling story, in his own inimitable style, but also exquisitely reproduces 260 of his incredible photographs. He began taking pictures in the 1920s and continued documenting the world that he knew, in and away from the spotlight, up to his death in 2000 at age 90....Included with the book is a CD of music and interviews with Milt Hinton, along with a discography and a filmography. This remarkable book reveals as well that Hinton possessed a gift of narrative. Blessed with a storyteller's facility, he leads the reader back to his first memories as a child in Vicksburg, Mississippi....Interweaving photos and prose, the book traces Milt's path from Mississippi to Chicago, where he polished his music through the famous Wendell Phillips High School program and earned money running errands for the Al Capone organization. Committing full time to music, Hinton crossed paths with people who seem cut from a mold that was broken long ago. Many have left vivid marks on history, from the legendary boxer Jack Johnson to the incomparable Cab Calloway, with whose band Hinton traveled for many years." (Read the Full Story)

Blues Trail - Robert Johnson - Hazlehurst

On Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 4:00 PM, MDA Tourism Heritage Trails Program, the Mississippi Blues Commission and the City of Hazlehurst will honor blues legend, Robert Johnson at the historic train depot located at 138 N. Ragsdale Road in downtown Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Claud Johnson (son of Robert Johnson) and his family will be present to receive this honor.

"Robert Johnson's reputation as one of the most prominent Blues pioneers is exceeded only by the myths that surround the origins of his musical career," Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said. "We don't know if he made a deal with the devil, but one thing is certain: Robert Johnson's innovative sound and soulful Blues rhythm makes him a perfect recipient for this designation of a second Blues Trail Marker in his honor."

Clarion Ledger: "Hazlehurst to unveil Robert Johnson blues trail marker"

WLBT: "Robert Johnson Honored with Blues Trail Marker"

News Update

Coke Kills Ike - Rock n' roll pioneer Ike Turner's death last month at age 76 was caused by a cocaine overdose. The medical examiner's office also listed hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema as "significant and contributing factors" to the Clarksdale, Miss., native's death. (Read the Full Story Here)

Tickle Me Elmore - Elmore James, the king of the raw and loud slide guitar of '50s Chicago blues, left something down in his old stomping grounds in Mississippi before moving north -- little Earnest Johnson. In the mid '60s, Johnson took the stage name Elmore James Jr., and he hopes to show the State Theatre during his show Friday what his biological father taught him. James Jr. was born in 1939 in James' hometown of Richmond, Miss., to a woman who ran a restaurant. His mother's husband, who he thought of as his dad back then, tended to be mean, James Jr. said from his home in Chicago. (Read The Full Story Here)

Lantana in March - Caroline Herring confidently returns to the forefront of the American roots music scene with her new album Lantana, due March 4th, 2008 on Signature Sounds Records. The Mississippi-born singer/songwriter new albulm is intimate, powerful and honest, Lantana is a masterpiece of understated intensity and in many ways an artistic re-birth for Herring. After making a name for herself in Mississippi as band member and co-founder of the now renowned Thacker Mountain Radio music series, Herring moved to Austin, TX. Herring quickly took the town by storm, releasing the critically acclaimed debut album, Twilight. She won "Best New Artist" at both the 2002 SXSW Austin Music Awards and also from the Austin American Statesman. Herring soon after released an equally impressive follow-up, Wellspring. In many ways Lantana is Herring's re-imaging of the Gothic South, with a rich alto voice that soothes the listener even as she addresses difficult subjects. Herring has a journalist's eye for detail, a poet's sense of scale and language, and a life-long Southerner's understanding of the issues that shape the culture below the Mason Dixon line. Herring's commitment to uncovering the truth in her songs led fellow artist Dar Williams to call Herring 'the elusive real thing.' There is no artifice on Lantana. It's an album full of delights, lyrically and musically. And just like Caroline Herring, her new album is the real thing. (Read More Here)

North Mississippi Dulcimer Association

A special program of dulcimer music will be provided by the North Mississippi Dulcimer Association (video link here) from 10:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 26, 2008, at the Parkway visitor center located at milepost 266 near Tupelo, Mississippi. The North Mississippi Dulcimer Association strives to teach dulcimer history, tradition, craftsmanship, and music by sharing its knowledge and talents. The Appalachian mountain dulcimer is the first instrument developed in the United States. Dating back to the early 1800s, the dulcimer is an instrument whose very name means “sweet sound”. The National Park Service and the North Mississippi Dulcimer Association invite everyone to listen to the soft sweet sounds of the dulcimer and learn of its extensive history. This program is free. For additional information, call 662-680-4027 or 1-800-305-7417. (For More Details)

Blues Music Awards - Tunica: May 8

For the first time in its history, the prestigious Blues Music Awards will be held in the birthplace of the blues - the Mississippi Delta. The awards ceremony will be held on May 8, 2008 at the 2,500 seat Event Center at the new Harrah's Casino Tunica and is sponsored by the Blues Foundation.

“I can think of no better location to host the Blues Music Awards than the undisputed birthplace of the Blues, right here in the Mississippi Delta,” Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said in this release. “One of the most significant aspects of our culture is the state’s vast music heritage, particularly in the blues genre. I’m delighted the Blues Foundation recognizes Mississippi’s important role in the history of the blues, and I welcome them, along with all lovers of the soulful, Delta blues, to our great state!”

“We know the Delta location will provide an excellent opportunity for the fans that come from around the globe to explore the birthplace of the Blues. The timing is particularly appropriate as more and more of the Mississippi Blues Trail markers are added," said Jay Sieleman, executive director of the Blues Foundation.

“Not only is Tunica the entrance to the Blues Highway 61, but it’s also the South’s Casino Capital, making it an entertaining destination for all visitors coming to this event,” said Webster Franklin, president and CEO of the Tunica Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The event brings together Blues performers, industry representatives and fans from all over the world to celebrate the best in Blues recordings and performances from the previous year. Each year, the Foundation presents The Blues Music Awards - the highest honor given to Blues artists - to recipients selected by its members.

The Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Charter Member’s Dinner will be held the night before on Wednesday, May 7, at the Tunica Riverpark museum.

Tickets are available for purchase online where members are able to access the ballot to determine which of the nominees will be selected to receive the 25 Blues Music Awards.

The Presenting Sponsor for the Blues Awards 2008 is The GIBSON Foundation. The Blues Music Awards are also sponsored by BMI, Casey Family Programs, Eagle Rock Entertainment, FedEx, and the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.

State recognizes Elvis’ blues roots

Tupelo Daily Journal: "More than 30 years after his death, Elvis Presley is still getting birthday presents. On Tuesday, what would have been Presley’s 73rd birthday, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker was unveiled at his birthplace in east Tupelo....The double-sided sign tells how Presley first heard the blues in Tupelo and then mixed the music genre with country, pop and gospel to come up with his signature sound. The marker includes pictures of Elvis with blues legends and copies of album covers....Last year, the birthplace had 70,000 paid visitors....The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission. The Elvis marker is the 28th on the trail and the one of the first in NeMiss." (Read the Full Story Here)

Happy Birthday Elvis

A Mississippi Blues Trail marker will be placed Tuesday at the Tupelo birthplace of legendary musician Elvis Presley, on what would have been his 73rd birthday.

Birthplace of Elvis - Blues Trail Marker

On Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at 1:00 PM, MDA Tourism Heritage Trails Program, the Mississippi Blues Commission, the Tupelo Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Elvis Presley Birthplace Museum will honor Rock & Roll legend, Elvis Presley with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. The location is the Elvis Presley Birthplace Museum (306 Elvis Presley Drive in Tupelo).

“By all accounts, Elvis Presley was the single greatest influence on modern day rock ‘n roll in America, and much of his musical inspiration drew on the Mississippi blues,” Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said. “As birthplace to Elvis, Tupelo is incredibly deserving of this very special Blues Trail marker which will honor the work, memory, and music legacy of the King himself.” (More Deails Here)

Governor's Art Award: Charley Pride

Clarion Ledger: "A 40-year country music career and record sales in the tens of millions earned Sledge native Charley Pride international renown. That and more have now earned him the state's top arts award, for lifetime achievement in the Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts....Pride tops a 2008 recipient class that also includes Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Gulfport native Natasha Trethewey, visual artist Lallah Miles Perry of Jackson, Meridian arts patron Emma McCain and arts leader the Mississippi Museum of Art." (Read the Full Story Here)

Miss Musicians Hall of Fame

Associated Press: "Rhythm and blues legend Jimmy Reed is among the 2007 class of inductees into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. Reed grew up in Leland and died in 1976 at the age of 51. He was at his creative peak between 1955 and 1961, when he wrote hits including 'Baby, What You Want Me to Do' and 'Bright Lights, Big City.' Other inductees include, by category: Freddie Waits of Jackson, jazz; Charlie Feathers of Holly Springs, country; the Rev. Cleophus Robinson of Canton, gospel; Blind Roosevelt Graves and the Mississippi Jook Band of Hattiesburg, rock; Tommy Johnson of Terry, blues." (Read the Full Story Here)

Super Chikan

Clarion Ledger: "Clarksdale bluesman James Johnson - better known as Super Chikan - has plenty to crow about. A fixture of his hometown's thriving blues scene, Johnson has toured the world, won five Living Blues Critics' Awards, was nominated for a 1998 W.C. Handy Award and was a recipient of a 2004 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. His down-home singing style, coupled with razor-sharp lyrical wit and unparalleled guitar playing (often on his own "chi-can-tars" he invented), have made him a favorite of blues fans from his backyard to France. Johnson will be the featured artist along with Jackson's Bobby Rush Revue at an after party for the Mississippi Blues Marathon at Hal & Mal's Saturday. Johnson recently spoke to the Clarion-Ledger [Read the Interview Here] while preparing for a big New Year's Eve party at Ground Zero in Clarksdale."

News Roundup

~~LA Times: Ike and Tina Turner are rollin', rollin' in retrospective set: The pop world has focused for so long on the remarkably sensual energy and excitement of Ike & Tina Turner's old live show that it is often easy to forget the duo also made some dynamic records. But even if you have wanted to go back and check up on the pair's records from the 1960s and 1970s, it was difficult to know which "best of" collection to buy because the Turners recorded for so many labels. Time Life has finally put together what it bills as Ike & Tina's "first-ever complete career retrospective." Released just weeks before Ike's death Dec. 12, at age 76, the three-disc boxed set includes tunes from each of the Turners' most noteworthy label affiliations. The results are mixed, but the highlights of "The Ike & Tina Turner Story 1960-1975," mostly taken from their early days on Sue Records, offer astonishingly raw slices of soul music; music often as frenetic as Tina's hip-shaking moves onstage. (Read the Full Story Here)

~~This is an update on Columbus area music in 2007.

~~JFP: The Crossroads 'Round Midnight: The Tommy Johnson Story - "One of my absolute favorite “Southern” movies, “O Brother Where Art Thou?,” portrays characters based on both Greek mythology and actual Southern personalities. When Everett, Pete and Delmar run into a bluesman who has just sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads, they invite him along for the ride. Many people speculate that the character is based on Robert Johnson, but his name is Tommy Johnson in the movie. What you might not know is that there actually was a Tommy Johnson, and he was the first one to sign on that dotted line." (Read the Full Story Here)